Saturday, October 27, 2007

Got Milk?

Hey folks,

I apologize for no real post yesterday. I was out late with my bro Pat (not my biological bro, but one of the people I've known longest here at X and one of my best friends, so he's like a bro), and was beat when I got home. I also had to work early this morning and desperately needed to get as much sleep as possible.

A friend of mine asked me about my views on dairy. Overall, I'm okay with it. I'm slightly lactose intolerant so I've never eaten/drank much of it. I do enjoy cheese however. For the 21-day challenge I have cut it completely out of my diet, except for where it might have been used to make the bread I'm eating, etc. So it connects with eggs in that way - another thing that I've never really eaten anyway. I have no moral objection to dairy - I would prefer to see some more ethical practices come about when it comes to treating Dairy Cows however. Free roaming, grazing, etc. Milking on the natural milk cycles.

Its important to note that the human belief that we are dependent on milk is kindof, well, made up. We are the only species that drinks another species milk, and after we are weened off of our mother's milk, the nutritional value of cows milk is really negligible. Especially if its not organic milk, which is liable to be laced with pesticides, herbicides and hormones (studies have shown that milk may be causing a higher incidence of twins in the USA). On top of all that, the fat content in milk makes it harmful as well. The benefits of vitamins and minerals, most notably calcium, can be found through a variety of other means that are much more natural to our bodies than milk.

Some examples of calcium alternatives to milk are almonds, brazil nuts, molasses, kale and leafy spring greens. All of which are easily integratable into one's diet. I keep raw almonds on me all the time as a kind of snack food. And none of these hold the same risks that milk has.

And so, in conclusion, I suppose I'm not anti-milk, but it should be used extremely sparingly and only be obtained from organic and ethical sources. In a wonderfully delicious cheese sauce for example.-----------------------------------------------------

The last two days have been quite nice. I made it over a week (Friday was my one week mark) and I'm still going strong. Still battling cravings, but those will take a while to subside I figure. I actually had a dream the other morning where I went to have breakfast, and there was nothing but meat. I quite literally didn't know what to do. lol.

But last night I enjoyed a few organic beers with Patrick. It was his birthday this week and so I went over to share some festivities with himself and his lovely lady Kayleigh. A suggestion - look up the online series called 'Trapped in the Closet'. It's written by R. Kelly and is hilarious.

Organic beer is interesting, and very clean tasting. The stuff I drink is from Mill St. Brewery in Toronto, which makes me enjoy it even more as its a good Canadian beer. They come in smaller bottles and contain less alcohol content, but the flavor makes up for it. It is amazing to go from the organic beer to a regular domestic and detect the definite differences in tastes.

Well that's about it from me. I worked all day today, which was standard for me on Saturdays (I've had 2 Saturdays off in the last six months) and I won't bore you with the details of Hardware Store dealings. And tonight I'll be visiting a friend's new place, which by happenstance is the same apartment I had two years ago. lol. Should be fun to go down memory lane.

3 comments:

Melissa
said...

Didn't know they made organic beer...that's actually quite cool! As for the whole milk debate, I would say I'm indeferent about the subject, don't drink much of it myself as I don't enjoy the taste, however cheese, ice cream, etc are delicious!

About Me

I've started up this blog because I wanted to recount the 21-day adventure of becoming a vegetarian. Afterward, it'll be a continuous recounting of the adventures, trials and tribulations that go on in the life of Keck.